1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to body structures for computer devices, and more particularly, to a body structure for a notebook type computer.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
Electronic information devices, especially computers, have been in widespread use among all age groups. In a highly competitive era nowadays, the design, manufacture or assembly of computer hardware must be made to reduce costs, so as to improve competitiveness thereof in the market. Thus, any improvement in the computer hardware framework to facilitate structural simplification, easy assembly or reduction in fabrication costs is considered valuable for computer hardware manufacturers.
A body structure for a notebook type computer has been developed toward light weight and low profile, and is usually in the form of modular design. Besides comprising compulsory components such as hard disk, battery and so on, the modular body structure may also be integrated with electronic devices such as modem, network card and so on to satisfy a network application of the notebook type computer.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional body structure for notebook type computer 1 comprises a base 11 and a cover 13 correspondingly coupled to each other, wherein a modular motherboard (not shown) is mounted between the base 11 and the cover 13. The motherboard is usually integrated with additional electronic devices such as hard disk, CD-ROM driver, battery, modem, network card and so on. The cover 13 is usually formed with a keyboard opening 131 and a cursor-panel opening 133. Generally, to assemble the body structure 1, a plurality of screw members such as screws are used to penetrate upwardly from the base 11 through the motherboard to be fixed with the cover 13 to thereby tightly couple the cover 13 and the base 11 together and ensure the surface flatness of the cover 13 to prevent any partial protrusion of the cover from damaging a panel such as a liquid crystal display (LCD).
In the conventional body structure for notebook type computer 1, a plurality of screw holes and keyholes corresponding in position to each other must be formed at the base 11 and the cover 13 in order to use the plurality of screw members such as screws to couple the base 11 and the cover 13 together. Normally, the keyholes are formed at a bottom surface of the cover 13 and the screw holes are formed in the base 11 to maintain a nice appearance of a top surface of the cover 13. Since the screw holes and the keyholes correspond in number and location to each other and are both for being interlocked with the screw members, only the cover 13 is exemplified and described as follows.
As shown in FIG. 2, the screw members 15 are usually provided at a peripheral area of the cover 13 and at a central area near the keyboard opening 131 and the cursor-panel opening 133. The screw members 15 located at the peripheral area of the cover 13 usually correspond to a peripheral area free of circuit layout of the motherboard, thereby not affecting the circuit layout of the motherboard. However, the screw members 15 located at the central area of the cover 13 correspond to a predetermined area of circuit layout of the motherboard, such that the circuit layout on the motherboard must be modified to have no interference with the provision of screw members 15 at the central area of the cover 13. This arrangement not only increases difficulty and complexity in designing the circuit layout of the motherboard, thereby reducing flexibility of the circuit layout design of the motherboard, but also enlarges the size of the motherboard, making the body structure 1 hard to be decreased in volume. Furthermore, the more screw members 15 being used, the more inconvenience in assembly/disassembly and maintenance is caused and the more costs of assembly and maintenance are required.
Therefore, the problem to be solved here is to provide a body structure for notebook type computer, which can resolve the aforementioned drawbacks to thereby reduce the number of screw members being used, decrease costs of assembly and maintenance, reduce difficulty and complexity in a circuit layout design of a motherboard, increase flexibility of the circuit layout design of the motherboard, and miniaturize the size of the motherboard and the volume of the body structure.